Trolley tricks and shelf shenanigans – Are you a victim of supermarket mind games?

YOU think you’ve chosen all the items in your weekly shop? Think again.

Supermarkets are employing a host of fresh psychological techniques from the front door to the check-out to get you to part with your cash.

And it’s not justchocolate bars at the checkout or colourful fruit and veg at the entrance the biggest shops are using cutting-edge mind games to fool even the savviest of consumers.

Phillip Adcock is managing director of SBXL, a company which examines consumer behaviour, and author of Supermarket Shopology.

“The human brain is a remarkable organ it’s capable of processing a lot of information at once,” he explains.

“Unfortunately it’s also good at taking shortcuts and it’s not great at processing the amount of information thrown at us in a supermarket.

“We’re terrible at it.

“We end up buying things because our brains can’t cope with all the information. We are very susceptible to this.”

One example Phillip quotes is the clutter at the front of the supermarket, like pallets full of special offers. “It’s deliberate, to slow you down so you can start looking at products to buy,” he says.

Here are another 10 psychological techniques supermarkets are using toencourage you to fill your trolley without you knowing. The Trolley TrickWe’ve all been there after arriving at the front door of our favoured supermarket you try to get one of those shallow trolleys but instead all that remains are the huge carts.

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But it can be quite deliberate. It’s been shown that shoppers subconsciously buy more when they’re pushing a larger trolley round.

We have a primitive need to fill our trolleys, regardless of whether we need the products. Multi-buyShoppers fix on the first price they see, according to psychologists and supermarkets have noticed.

When describing a special offer, they’re more likely to put the price they want you to pay at the beginning.

For instance, when something is listed as “£3.50 each, or two for £5”, most shoppers buy just one item.

But when it’s written as “Two for £5, or £3.50 each”, more opt for the multi-buy. Promo, but no price dropOur brains process two special offers per second when wandering through a supermarket and with such a large amount of information, we may not catch all of it.

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Another tool used by retailers is using coloured price tickets rather than white whether or not it’s a special offer.

Phillip’s research found putting a yellow border around a product can boost sales by more than 150% even when there’s no price cut. Eye-levelEveryone knows why supermarkets put more expensive products at eye-level so you spot them first.

But not always some products, especially those high in sugar are on the bottom two shelves.

That’s so children can see them and use their significant pester power on mum or dad.

Now you know why Haribo sweets are nearly always on the bottom shelves. Service with a smileWe’re biologically wired to love seeing a smile. It comes from days when our ancestors needed to identify friend or foe quickly, so a smiling face puts us at ease.

We identify a smile faster than any other emotion, and it’s why supermarkets get staff to smile at you.

But it’s also why we’re increasingly seeing pictures of smiling faces in shops and even on products themselves Phillip believes we reactly warmly to them. Go with the crowdSupermarkets are increasingly highlighting “What’s popular”, especially if you do your shopping online.

Showing what lots of people are buying makes you more likely to buy that thing too. An experiment in Essex showed why. A picture of a woman eating a pizza increased sales by 25%, but a picture of a group of friends enjoying pizza increased sales by 75%.

You might think you’re an individual and you’re not alone. Great British shop offThe weekly shop isn’t as popular as it used to be. Increasingly, we go into a supermarket to buy items for one big project like a family dinner, or a Bake Off-style luxury cake. Supermarkets know this. Increasingly they’ll have sections where you can buy all the items you need in one place. Which is very handy but often they put all the most expensive ingredients together, leaving the cheaper alternatives separate. The wee checkoutThe aisles are wide enough to turn around an overloaded trolley so why are the checkouts so narrow?

It’s because you’re getting a final chance to look over your products.

That jumbo packet of luxury crisps might seem a frivolous purchase now that you have to pay for it. But it’s more difficult to put them back if you have to manoeuvre your heavy trolley in a tight space around a couple of other shoppers to put them back. Magazines are the new chocolateConsumers have had enough of tempting, but fattening, chocolate bars located at the checkout and pressure from shoppers got supermarkets to remove them. These snacks have been replaced by another treat something to relieve the boredom.

Supermarkets are aware of how bored we are waiting at a checkout. The solution is magazines not only do they distract you from waiting, but you might just decide to buy one. Watch out for thievesIf they’re stealing it then it must be desirable. Shop workers found that in one Tesco in England sales of Stella Artois lager were going through the roof. There was no special offer on the beer, leaving the store manager baffled. Market researchers found a sign placed by the security team in the beer aisle was located just above the Stella Artois. The simple sign made the Belgian lager stand out above its rivals.